Applicant hereby claims priority of the Korean Patent Application No. 2000-0003142, filed Jan. 24, 2000, the entire disclosure of which is considered as being part of the disclosure of the accompanying application and is hereby incorporated by reference therein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program drive device for computers and game machines, designed to run a variety of game programs, aerobic programs or dance programs on personal computers, commercial computers, personal game machines, or commercial game machines, under the control of users"" physical action, such as hand action and foot action, within a limited space, and, more particularly, to a program drive device for computers, having a plurality of sensor units movably installed in a plurality of support columns movably standing on a pad having a predetermined area, each of the sensor units consisting of a light emitting part and a light receiving part so as to be activated or inactivated by a motion of a user""s body and outputting a motion signal to the input port of a computer, thus running a variety of game programs, aerobic programs or dance programs on personal computers, commercial computers, personal game machines, or commercial game machines, under the control of users"" physical action in place of a conventional keyboard operation, joystick operation or mouse operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, a variety of game programs, aerobic programs or dance programs for personal computers, commercial computers, personal game machines, or commercial game machines have been typically performed and controlled by operating keyboards, joysticks, or mouses.
However, such conventional game programs, aerobic programs or dance programs for computers and game machines force a user to operate a keyboard, a joystick or a mouse with his fingers while sitting in a chair and watching a monitor screen for a lengthy period of time without moving his body actively. Therefore, it is almost impossible to expect active physical exercise from use of such conventional programs. The conventional game programs, aerobic programs or dance programs for computers and game machines may adversely affect users"" health when users use the programs for a lengthy period of time.
In an effort to overcome such problems experienced in the conventional game programs, aerobic programs or dance programs, somewhat active programs, such as a variety of DDR (Dancexe2x80x94Dance Revolution) programs, have been proposed. In order to perform a conventional DDR program, a user, standing on a control pad provided with differently oriented arrow switch sensors and laid on a flat support surface, continuously, actively and specifically steps on the arrow switch sensors of the control pad designated by quickly varying images displayed on the monitor screen. However, such conventional DDR programs only provide two-dimensional activityxe2x80x94in addition to jumping activityxe2x80x94performed by legs and feet within a limited area defined by the control pad. Therefore, the conventional DDR programs are problematic in that they cannot provide physical exercise or rhythmic movement of user""s upper body, including arms and hands, even though they allow physical exercise and rhythmic movement of user""s lower body including the legs and feet.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a program drive device for computers, which has a plurality of sensor units movably installed in a plurality of support columns of a pad, and consisting of a light emitting part and a light receiving part so as to be activated or inactivated by a motion of a user""s body, and outputting a motion signal to the input port of a computer, thus running a variety of game programs, aerobic programs or dance programs on personal computers, commercial computers, personal game machines, or commercial game machines, under the control of users"" physical action in place of a conventional keyboard operation, joystick operation or mouse operation, and which provides physical exercise and rhythmic movement of user""s body while exciting user""s interest.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a program drive device for computers, which is usable with a conventional DDR, thus running a program in response to a motion of hands, arms, feet and legs of a user.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a program drive device for computers, which is simply and easily connected to the input port of a conventional computer, such as the keyboard terminal, joystick terminal or mouse terminal of a personal computer, commercial computer or game machine, without forcing a user to purchase a separate equipment.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a program drive device for computers, which is designed to run a program of a computer or a game machine in response to a motion of a user""s body without forcing the user to become skilled in computer operation, thus allowing people to easily and simply use game programs of computers or game machines without being afraid of complex operation procedures of the computers and game machines.
In order to accomplish the above objects, an embodiment of the present invention provides a program drive device for running a game program in computers, comprising: a pad having a predetermined area and provided with a plurality of rails thereon; a support column movably engaging with each of the rails while standing upright on the rail, the support column being movable along the rail as desired and fixed to the rail at an adjustable position; and two sensor units movably installed in each of the support columns of the rails at upper and lower portions of the support column, thus being movable along each support column and fixed to the support column at adjustable positions, whereby the sensor units sense a motion of a user""s body moving on the pad and output motion signals to a computer, thus allowing the computer to display a variable motion of a character, corresponding to the motion of the user""s body, on the monitor of the computer.